SONG: A Pseudo-Satellite

SONG:

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: CNN 5 May 2022, “This solar-powered plane could stay in the air for months,” as used in the post Solar plane can do the job of a satellite without going into space..

ABSTRACT:
Well, this is the May song – the one that was all done but the lyrics on 23 May 2022. Here it is, 23 June 2022, and… I’ve got lyrics. I wound up redoing quite a bit of the song, and I’m still not sure I’m happy with it. I think the only thing I really like is the synth lead that sounds like a hulusi or a loose clarinet. The drums had been painstakingly placed jazzy things that were pleasantly bouncy and absolutely impossible for me to do anything with, so in a fit of pique I replaced them entirely with samples from “Walk, Don’t Run.”

I blame two viruses for this – between then and now, I got the covid (a mild case, thank you vaccines, but enough to throw me and my schedules into disarray), and I got a bad sonic virus. Kate Bush charted, and yes, “Running Up That Hill” is a fantastic song, but my weakness for Bush is always in covers, and did you know that Car Seat Headrest released a cover to that song almost exactly a year ago? It happened, and it’s catchy as hell.

So this recording is a product of covid brain fog and a few hours straight of Will Toledo dreaming of a body swap while I’m trying desperately to be ironically cheerful in the character of a solar plane that is not a satellite. I think I have this relationship with satellites in lyrics that’s shaped entirely by Lou Reed and Billy Bragg, where the satellite represents something about love at a distance, or that is not everything that it should be or that it seems to be. I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them – but they were only satellites; it’s wrong to wish on space hardware. You know.

So this is a song about a fake satellite, which is on one level, a love that is not as distant as it seems. Satellites observe our movements, but they also communicate for us. So this song is also sort of about the feeling of driving all night with someone you like talking to you, either on the phone or in the passenger seat. And knowing that it doesn’t ever really have to stop.

Anyway, I owe an original and a cover. Better get on it.

LYRICS:

We take off in the morning
Travel through the night
Another sunset – hungry for the light

We fly above the weather
To where the air gets thin
Pretending we’re a satellite – we’ll never land again

And I am hearing voices
And I repeat the words
And I will never sleep until you have heard

And I am hearing voices
And I repeat the words
Pretending I’m a satellite (with observations)

Take a breath, take a rest, we’re underway
We’ll never stop again
Fly all night, refueled by light
A pseudo-satellite.
I’m not a satellite.

With all these solar panels
There’s no one at the wheel
The sky is never empty, and I am barely real

And I am hearing voices
And I repeat the words
Pretending I’m a satellite (with observations)

Take a breath, take a rest, we’re underway
We’ll never stop again
Fly all night, refueled by light
A pseudo-satellite.
I’m not a satellite.

It’s wrong to take your wishes
But I’m not made for space
And I should never fall, with or without your grace.

And I am hearing voices
Repeat the words all night
Pretending I’m your satellite (observations)